June 24, 2005
The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor of California
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: California Environmental Quality Act
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:
The League of Women Voters of California (LWVC) has long supported citizen
participation in the political process as well as efforts to protect and
improve our physical environment. The LWVC is on record as supporting
the proper application of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
as a tool to achieve these two goals, and we reiterate our position in
this letter. In recent months, California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman
has led a review of CEQA to consider whether it can be improved to meet
current needs for development while enhancing environmental quality. The
LWVC believes that what is needed is for CEQA to be used properly.
The California Environmental Quality Act of 1970 requires state, regional
and local agencies to identify the significant environmental impacts of
their actions and to avoid or mitigate those impacts, if feasible.
The League of Women Voters of California supports CEQA because we believe:
- Growth management decisions should relate to and protect the overall
quality of the environment.
- In carrying out land use planning and regulation, and throughout the
growth management process, government must provide for:
- involvement of citizens in the earliest planning and regulatory
stages;
- adequate funding of the public information process; and
- development of mechanisms to minimize conflict of interest on
the part of persons who make land use decisions.
CEQA is critical in assuring:
- full disclosure of a project's significant adverse impacts on the
environment
- adoption of all feasible mitigation measures and alternatives
- public participation in the development review process
- protection of the environment consistent with providing safe, decent
and adequate housing for all Californians
- integration of transportation and land use planning and regulation
to reduce vehicle travel and facilitate use of mass transit and other
transportation alternatives
- recognition of the interrelationship of regulation and decision making
for air quality, energy, land use, waste management and water resources.
The issue of "streamlining" CEQA has been discussed at public meetings
around the state sponsored by the CEQA Improvement Advisory Group convened
by Secretary Chrisman. The LWVC believes that CEQA already allows for
a streamlined approach to project evaluation. We stated this in 1996 in
a letter on then-pending legislation. That letter went on to say, as we
noted above, that what was needed was for CEQA to be used properly. The
League feels that this is still true in 2005.
Sincerely,
Jacqueline Jacobberger
President, League of Women Voters of California
cc: Mike Chrisman, Secretary
Resources Agency
